You might have seen pictures on instagram from exotic places of underwater photography of these beautiful beds of white corals with captions like “is this heaven?” Truth is that might be more appropriate than what you might think since it’s close to a death bed. When corals are dying, the first thing to go is the coloured algae that lives within symbiotically then slowly all that is left behind is their white skeleton, which will then start to be covered in a different brown algae and decompose.

Now a lot of people might ask them selves why that is so shocking or why the scientist tracking the bleaching event for a few weeks in the Netflix documentary re-emerged from the water crying, but it’s as simple as this: coral reefs house about a quarter of all known marine species that could go extinct without their habitat.

Most of the commonly used beauty products are mainly made out very harmful chemicals, we’re talking toothpaste, shampoo, facial cream and sunscreen - besides the fact that 80% of what we put onto our skin is absorbed directly into our bloodstream, the rest ends up in the sea. There is this is idea that the sea is so big and everything you throw into it will just magically disappear, but that’s just not how it works and whilst we MIGHT be starting to think about reducing plastic, the last thought on our minds is the chemicals and particles we spread every day, that seem to little and irrelevant.

One popular ingredient you find in common sunscreen is oxybenzone which has been proven to deform corals - just one drop in six and a half olympic pools damages coral, no imagine how much we spill into it.

It’s not enough to criticise Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris accord and yet never start looking at your own household and the tiny things you are doing wrong. I am often surprised by how much people rely on politicians to make the world better and have the thought that their own actions don’t have any real consequence, but how I see it is that we are the consumers, we decide what we put on our skin and what ultimately ends up in our blood or the sea. I’m going to introduce you to an alternative sunscreen which I have been using guilt-free for the past few weeks and has been working perfectly. Natural sunscreens are known for being very thick and leaving this white non-spreadable layer on the skin, but that’s pretty outdated too, or at least I’ve found Green People's that does the job amazingly just like a normal sunscreen, without the nasties, and with all these positives:

certified organic

cruelty-free (products aren’t tested on animals)

scent free

SLS/SLES, parabens, alcohol, petrochemicals free

recyclable and sustainable packaging

10% of profits go to charity (Marine Conservation Society)

great for sensitive skin

The main ingredients are Aloe Vera, Avocado, Chamomille and Green Tea. I was actually surprised by the price, as I thought such a big tub of natural, organic, vegan etc sunscreen would probably start at £40 but instead it’s half of that - find that pretty amazing!!!

The Aftersun cream is actually pretty amazing too, like the sunscreen it’s made for sensitive skin and through the mint and aloe extracts it has an incredible cooling effect on the skin which is the ultimate goal after a long day in the sun!